BAMAKO, May 1, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Mali's military junta announced on Wednesday the repeal of rules for political parties that the African nation's opposition parties say are part of a campaign to dissolve them.

The announcement comes after the ruling junta organised a national conference, which recommended this week the dissolution of existing parties and for military leader General Assimi Goita to become head of state without an election.

A draft law that would cancel an existing 2005 charter, which sets out the rules for creating, financing and running political parties, was adopted at a military cabinet meeting, an official statement said Wednesday.

"The repeal of this law does not call into question the existence of political parties," Abdou Salam Diepkile, director general of territorial administration, said on national television.

Diepkile said the cabinet only sought to "stop the proliferation of political parties" in Mali.

A draft law would be put in coming days to the national transition council that was set up by the junta after it seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, said the statement.

Mali's junta on Monday began a consultation on adopting a national charter for political parties, boycotted by nearly all opposition movements out of fear of their dissolution by the soldiers in power.

Many Malian opposition parties fear that the military-led government, like its fellow junta-run west African allies in Niger and Burkina Faso, will use the charter to ramp up the junta's already tough crackdown on political dissent.

Officers who took power after the coups said they would hand over to a civilian administration by 2024. But they have progressively restricted expressions of opposition to the military administration.

The junta's latest measures were called "alarming" by the Amnesty International rights group.